Little steps

 

So far today I have mainly been preparing some work (a combination of prints and originals) to be displayed in a small shop in my neighboring town. I’ve ordered some gorgeous frames from ayersandgraces.com, even though they didn’t have the largest frame that I ordered in stock (well they did, but I’d ordered the last one and it was damaged) they rung to inform me and the lady was ever so nice, so I will definitely be ordering from them again! I can’t wait for them to arrive in the post so I can see how well they compliment my artwork.

I’m really excited about putting some work up for sale too, I suppose it’s something I’ve been putting off due to my shaky confidence and waves of self doubt. It’s only happening now because a good friend kindly put my name forward to the owner. I think it will be a really positive experience and a step towards the future.

 

Another beak time doodle!

Ink drawing

A little experiment I did earlier with ink, on watercolour paper. I’m not sure how I feel about the medium, it feels a little too hard to control for me! I think if I was going to work with it again I’d need some dipping pens for detail and some new ink – the one I have is so old it’s mostly dried up!

How to find your style

As an artist, whether you work with paint, digital mediums, sounds, sculpture, photography, and so on, to stand out from the crowd and make a name for yourself you’ll need to find a way of expressing yourself which is unique, and consistent enough for people to recognise your work. This is no easy feat, some find it easier then others. It’s easy to get confused while on this journey, and mixed messages don’t help (i.e  “be true to yourself” vs “do what’s going to make some money”).

I was something of a late bloomer myself in terms of finding my style, it only really started to happen at the end of college, but even then I trailed off, unsure of committing to a very stylised visual language. It’s such a big and vital topic for all artists, I thought I’d make a few pointers to help others going through the process. Although an artists style is to some degree always in development, your life will become much easier when you do have something consistent to base all your work on, and you can still experiment within that style once you have it, so don’t be fooled in to thinking your creativity will be limited.

Don’t give up if you still haven’t found you style after college

I remember at college, there was a lot of emphasis on finding your own “visual language”. Tutors told us that even if it is the only accomplishment that you find at college, your time here has not been wasted. As someone who was as lost as ever upon finishing my degree, with unspectacular grades and a portfolio that was nothing to be proud of, imagine how that made me feel. Art college is a great environment, you get constant feedback, you’re surrounded by different artistic influences,  but for some people, this can al be a bit to much! Different feedback from different teachers can leave you feeling in a muddle, and at the end of the day you’re there to get good grades so it’s natural to do whatever you think will “tick the boxes”. Sit down and have a really good think about what you want your style to be, forget about your tutors and peers, imagine a style that would make YOU happy. doing that will pay off in the long run.

 

Expose yourself to as many different styles as possible…

Until you find something that really stands out to you. Something that you feel a connection with. It may help to find a movement that you really love, for instance I found a love for the Popsurrealism/Lowbrow movement, and decided to direct my work towards that style. Again, it is easy to get confused about the difference between being inspired and copying. For a long time that conflict made me avoid representing my inspirations in my art. But it’s really important that you don’t feel that way. As long as what you’re doing feels true to yourself, you love it, it makes you feel excited about art, and you’re not actually directly copying, go for it! There is so much incredible art out there, in every different style possible, it’s ok to be influenced by it :).

Art is communication

Remember first and foremost that art is communication, so what do you want your work to say? Are you going to focus on a political message, humour, beauty? What do you want your work to say about yourself? I did a lot of writing in my journal as I was focusing on developing my style (and I still do!) I found that really helpful when figuring out what my art meant to me, and what message I wanted it to convey.

Feedback

Feedback is invaluable, it’s one of the things that post-graduates miss most about the college environment. Do take every comment on board,  but if you get some really positive feedback on a piece that you don’t like all that much, don’t instantly abandon the work that you favour. Either put the comments to one side, or try to include elements of what made that piece favourable among others in your future work. Remember that no matter what kind of art you do, there will always be an audience for it, just sometimes that audience is harder to seek out. If you keep on working in a way that you enjoy, eventually your audience will come to you. That is part of why it is so important to find some consistency.

 

Ultimately all of what I have said resonates with “be true to yourself”, cheesy as it sounds! As long as you work hard and keep focused, you will find your individual style.

I hope someone out there has found this useful. Good luck!

 

Family Portrait – Finished oil painting :)

 

Completed commissioned portrait oil painting on canvas.

Finishing what was once begun

I’ve decided I’m finally going to finish this painting for good! To re-cap, this is the painting I first did over 2 years ago now, then I totally re-panted it, twice, so there’s two totally different images under this one! I’m captivated by the colour scheme of this one, and I feel it fits the popsurrealism style which is something I’ve had in mind to achieve. Basically, I like it enough to justify spending the time finishing it off 🙂

 

 

Well, haven’t I been a busy bee today! Pencil and charcoal on cartridge paper.

Detail

 

I am slowly working towards including more detail in my sketchbook work. Up until recently I’ve not put much effort or thought in to sketchbook work, for some reason I always believed all my efforts should directly towards final pieces. I have learnt that this often results in a lot of time spent on a final piece (i.e, an oil painting) that turns out to be very disappointing, because the basic concept, composition, design etc is underdeveloped. Even last year I had a few incidents of this, and the work ended up in the bin. I wouldn’t mind too much, you could call it part of the creative process, but I just don’t have the time to waste like that any more. I am serious about creating some true masterpieces this year!

I am itching to start a new painting, I even primed a large canvas last weekend in anticipation, but I’m not going to jump the gun this time. I have an idea in my mind of what is going to be painted on to that canvas, so my sketchbook work for the next few weeks will be related to that concept.

Final touches

 

This is the commissioned painting that I started way back (mid 2015, I think). It’s finally done – though I will hold on to it for a few more days just to look at it and see if there’s anything else I want to do before it can be sent off.

I’ve not thought too much about what I’m going to do after this, this painting was part of what inspired me to dedicate this year to portrait based work. So I’d best get sketching out new ideas!

 

A fun, whimsical sketchbook page that I did a little earlier on in the week, working on giving my drawings & characters a bit more personality and quirkiness.